Amazon WorkMail shuts down March 31, 2027: here are your email options

If your business email still runs on Amazon WorkMail, AWS has already picked the end date. You need a new home for mail before the lights go out.

Amazon WorkMail is the hosted email product AWS bundled for small teams that wanted @yourcompany.com without running their own server. It worked fine for years. AWS now plans to end support on March 31, 2027. After that date you lose access to the WorkMail console and the mailboxes themselves. That is not a gentle sunset. It is a hard stop.

New sign-ups stop even sooner. AWS says WorkMail will no longer accept new customers beginning April 30, 2026. If you are already on it, you can keep using it until March 2027. You still need a plan.

This note is for owners around Richmond, Henrico, and Sandston who are not IT staff. You do not need to become an email engineer. You do need to pick Google or Microsoft (or another provider), move the old mail, flip DNS once, and get every phone and laptop pointed at the new inbox before March.

The two replacements most small shops pick

AWS names other vendors in its end of support guide. In practice, most five-to-twenty-person businesses we talk to land on one of these:

Google Workspace Business Starter

Gmail with your domain, Calendar, Drive, and Meet in one admin panel. On Google’s Annual/Fixed-Term plan, Business Starter is $7 USD per user per month (about $84 per user per year if you pay yearly). The Flexible plan costs more if you want month-to-month with no commitment.

Pick Google when your team lives in Gmail on the web or on phones, when you want simple sharing in Drive, and when you prefer one login for mail and files. Outlook die-hards may push back. That is a people problem, not a technical one.

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

Exchange Online mail with your domain, Teams, OneDrive, and web or mobile Office apps. Microsoft lists Business Basic at $7.00 per user per month, paid yearly on its Business Basic plan page.

Important detail from Microsoft’s own FAQ on that page: Business Basic includes web and mobile Outlook, not the full desktop Outlook app. If someone on your team insists on classic desktop Outlook, Word, and Excel installed locally, you are looking at Microsoft 365 Business Standard at $14.00 per user per month, paid yearly for installable apps. Do not buy Basic and assume desktop Outlook comes with it.

Pick Microsoft when your shop already runs Windows laptops with Office habits, when Teams is your meeting room, or when your accountant lives in Excel files on OneDrive.

Your old mail can come along

You are not starting with an empty inbox unless you choose to. Both platforms expect a migration.

WorkMail speaks IMAP to email clients, and Google’s Admin console includes a data import tool for IMAP accounts. A super administrator connects to the WorkMail IMAP server, maps each old address to the new Gmail address, and Google pulls mail and folders across. Google documents limits (for example, up to 100 IMAP users in one import batch on the paths described in its data import overview). Plan a test mailbox first, not a Friday afternoon for the whole company.

Moving to Microsoft? The Microsoft 365 setup guides walk through migrating existing mail during onboarding. You can also run a staged IMAP migration depending on size. The point for a non-technical owner: budget time for a copy job, not just a DNS flip.

AWS also documents exporting mailbox content to Amazon S3 if you need archives before you leave. Read it if anyone asks about compliance or old threads you cannot lose.

What the switch actually involves (high level)

Think of four chunks. Your web person or IT partner should own the details. You should understand the shape so nobody surprises you on cutover day.

1. Domain verification. Google or Microsoft must prove you control your domain before they accept mail for @yourbusiness.com. That usually means adding a TXT record at your domain registrar or DNS host. Same idea as proving you own the domain for a website. See Choosing a domain name for why registrar access matters.
2. MX, SPF, and DKIM. MX records tell the internet where to deliver new mail. SPF and DKIM help other servers trust that mail is really from you. When you leave WorkMail, those DNS records must change from Amazon’s values to Google’s or Microsoft’s. Get this wrong and mail bounces or lands in spam. This is the same class of problem as breaking email when you move website hosting without planning. We touched that in What web hosting means for a small business.
3. Migration sync, then a final sync. Most moves run twice: once while WorkMail is still live (so people can keep working), and again right before you cut over, to catch stragglers. AWS’s own migration notes warn that mail arriving during an MX change may need another pass.
4. Phones and computers. Every device that checked WorkMail needs the new account added. Remove or disable the old WorkMail profile so it does not keep asking for a dead password. Outlook, iPhone Mail, and Android Gmail each have a short re-setup ritual.

None of this is mysterious. It is just easy to underestimate if you have never changed providers before.

Do not wait until March

March 31, 2027 sounds far away when you are staring at a calendar in October 2026. It is not far in project time.

A sane timeline for a small office:

• Now through late fall 2026: pick Google or Microsoft, buy licenses, verify the domain, run a pilot migration for one or two mailboxes.
• Early winter 2026 (think November or December): move everyone, update MX/SPF/DKIM, re-add phones, and tell customers only if your address changes (it should not if you keep the same domain).
• First quarter 2027: buffer month. Fix stragglers, export anything left in WorkMail, cancel AWS billing.

Waiting until February 2027 means you are competing with every other WorkMail customer who procrastinated, plus holiday outages, plus whoever on your staff “will get to it next week.” Early winter beats a March fire drill.

Costs beyond the sticker price

License math is the easy part. Also budget:

• Staff time answering “why is my mail weird today?”
• Someone who can log into DNS without guessing
• Optional help moving shared calendars or contacts (often messier than mail)
• A few days of duplicate delivery if MX timing is sloppy

Google and Microsoft both raise prices over time. Always confirm current numbers on the official pages linked above before you sign.

If you want PFQWEB to run the move

We build and host websites for Central Virginia businesses. Email moves ride along with the same DNS discipline we use when a site cutover must not break mail. We handle the whole move in-house: provider setup, domain verification, MX/SPF/DKIM, IMAP migration, final sync, and getting accounts back on phones and desktops.

We work from Sandston in eastern Henrico, serving Richmond, Henrico, and New Kent. Call 804-938-5201, email info@pfqweb.com, or use the contact page. If you are also planning a site refresh, the prep checklist lists the access we need up front.

Hero photo: Mikhail Nilov on Pexels (Pexels License).